Free patch to fix ADSL problem affecting internet calls

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A Queensland telecommunications provider is making it easier for
small businesses to make cheap internet phone calls.

FaktorTel will soon launch a software patch to circumvent common
problems with some popular ADSL modems.

For more than a year, Chris Cowling, director of operations at
FaktorTel, has been posting a fix for the Telstra-supplied
SpeedTouch 530 ADSL modem on online forums. Now he is writing a
free downloadable software program to reduce calls to the company's
technical support line by at least half.

FaktorTel's about 3000 net phone customers either use their
ISP-supplied routers or buy them from the company to use with their
existing handsets.

Mr Cowling says half of the calls to FaktorTel's help desk in
the past six months involve a "pre-configured block" on the
SpeedTouch modem. Some Optus ADSL customers using the supplied
D-Link router also reported difficulties connecting.

Mr Cowling says port number 5060, necessary for net phone use,
appears to be blocked as a factory setting on some ADSL modems but
cable internet customers do not have the same difficulty. "It took
us ages to figure that out. Personally, I don't believe in the
(conspiracy theory) but it's going to be a big problem because a
lot of people have the routers now," Mr Cowling says. "If you are
an average user, you have no chance of fixing it yourself."

Freelance web developer Gordon Rouse used Cowling's fix to
connect his phone to another provider, Austech Partnerships. "I
just don't know if it's deliberate. You need to know a little bit
more to fix things (alone). I wouldn't know how to do it," Mr Rouse
says.

"There are a few routers that sometimes have issues and require
software upgrades or some fiddling. It's more the older modems.
SpeedTouch tries to do something tricky because it has a firewall
built in. We have a simple procedure to (fix it)," Wai says.

Telstra spokesman Warwick Ponder says the SpeedTouch router is
not configured to block net phone traffic; the telco used it in net
phone trials this year.

Customers with problems should ring BigPond technical support
for help, he says.

The executive director of modem maker NetComm, Michael Boorne,
says the blocks are accidental. "It's just a function of the
firewall settings. If (Telstra) really wanted to make it so it
wouldn't work, it wouldn't pass any traffic. It's an unintended
consequence of making a router safe," he says.